Sniff sniff. Our second day here.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Last night in Floripa
Yesterday was pretty uneventful. Many of us were frantically trying to finish up our blogs for class and our essay that is also due today, so socializing was scarce.
We did, however, manage to venture out to Lagoa for some "Mexican" food. Actually it wasn´t too bad, but not like back home and I stil desperately want a burrito. We didn´t leave the hotel until about 11 and didn´t even eat until midnight. I´ve become so accustomed to doing everything so late here that going back home will be a big transition since everything is closed by either 10 or 2. That´s one thing I don´t miss about home.
Today was our last day of class and here I am, blogging. I documented our daily walk to school today. I wanted to get a feel for those back home at just how pretty it is here. I hope I captured it ok. I´m a bit scared at how much money the hotel has charged us for all of the water, soda and chips we´ve consumed, not to mention black dyed-towels, carpet stains and god knows what else happened to the room **cough cough Celine! cough cough***
I´m sad to be leaving, but can´t wait to get home, but I guess right now my vacation offially starts. Summer school is over! Woo hoo!
I have loved my stay here in Floripa and I hope to return sometime very soon, hopefully with some knowledge of the language.
I guess I´m not feeling very philosophical right now, I just wrote out all of my good thougts on my essay.
We did, however, manage to venture out to Lagoa for some "Mexican" food. Actually it wasn´t too bad, but not like back home and I stil desperately want a burrito. We didn´t leave the hotel until about 11 and didn´t even eat until midnight. I´ve become so accustomed to doing everything so late here that going back home will be a big transition since everything is closed by either 10 or 2. That´s one thing I don´t miss about home.
Today was our last day of class and here I am, blogging. I documented our daily walk to school today. I wanted to get a feel for those back home at just how pretty it is here. I hope I captured it ok. I´m a bit scared at how much money the hotel has charged us for all of the water, soda and chips we´ve consumed, not to mention black dyed-towels, carpet stains and god knows what else happened to the room **cough cough Celine! cough cough***
I´m sad to be leaving, but can´t wait to get home, but I guess right now my vacation offially starts. Summer school is over! Woo hoo!
I have loved my stay here in Floripa and I hope to return sometime very soon, hopefully with some knowledge of the language.
I guess I´m not feeling very philosophical right now, I just wrote out all of my good thougts on my essay.
Almost over :( And some fotos!
Watching the game with our new amigos.
And I swear that´s not the only outfit I have!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Teaching English as a foreign language
After class yesterday I met up with my friend Murilo and his friend Dalmo for veggie food and after that, walked to the bay, but not before getting caught in the rain. It was so pretty and I haven´t experienced rain in so long in draught-prone California that I didn´t mind that I got soaked.
But the funniest part about yesterday was teaching my Brazilian friends new English words. I was trying to explain my job and what I do and what Section 8 is and what our tenants are like and the word "ghetto" slipped out of my mouth. But much to my dismay, nobody knew what "ghetto" meant. So I had to consult my inner dictionary to try to define the word ghetto. I was pretty much stumped. How DO you descibe what ghetto means? I came up with words like "loud, obnoxious, cheap, too many kids, ignant" amongst others, but my meaning just wasn´t getting across. I settled by saying "sorry, you just have to see it to understand." Big taste of cultural differences. There are no ghetto people in Brazil. How wonderful, eh?
I also had a bit of a cross cultural language difficulty when later on after eating Brazilian barbeque (I settled for the vast array of side dishes, but the waiters kept coming around the table with every type of dead animal you can think of- it was like eating in a slaughter house) we were hanging out with another group of friends at their house near school watching the Brazil vs. Mexico futból game (Mexico won). My friend Felipé shocked and offended both me and the other 3 of my classmates who went when he called me a skank! When I asked him why he called me that, he called me it again! He didn´t understand why I was getting so offended and it took me a minute to realize what he was trying to say when it dawned on me that he meant to say "skunk". I had to explain to Felipe that he had to be careful with what he said in some cases, because the word "skank" is like a prostitute. He was so upset that he accidentally called me a skank, but excited that he learned a new word! We all had a good laugh out of it.
The language barriers make the adventure all that more fun!
But the funniest part about yesterday was teaching my Brazilian friends new English words. I was trying to explain my job and what I do and what Section 8 is and what our tenants are like and the word "ghetto" slipped out of my mouth. But much to my dismay, nobody knew what "ghetto" meant. So I had to consult my inner dictionary to try to define the word ghetto. I was pretty much stumped. How DO you descibe what ghetto means? I came up with words like "loud, obnoxious, cheap, too many kids, ignant" amongst others, but my meaning just wasn´t getting across. I settled by saying "sorry, you just have to see it to understand." Big taste of cultural differences. There are no ghetto people in Brazil. How wonderful, eh?
I also had a bit of a cross cultural language difficulty when later on after eating Brazilian barbeque (I settled for the vast array of side dishes, but the waiters kept coming around the table with every type of dead animal you can think of- it was like eating in a slaughter house) we were hanging out with another group of friends at their house near school watching the Brazil vs. Mexico futból game (Mexico won). My friend Felipé shocked and offended both me and the other 3 of my classmates who went when he called me a skank! When I asked him why he called me that, he called me it again! He didn´t understand why I was getting so offended and it took me a minute to realize what he was trying to say when it dawned on me that he meant to say "skunk". I had to explain to Felipe that he had to be careful with what he said in some cases, because the word "skank" is like a prostitute. He was so upset that he accidentally called me a skank, but excited that he learned a new word! We all had a good laugh out of it.
The language barriers make the adventure all that more fun!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Lone vegetarian cafe provides refuge for city´s progressives
Florianopolis vegetarians find difficulties with the lack of restaurants catering to their dietary needs
BY Nicole Signoretti
Florianopolis, Brasil (June 26, 2007)- Brasil is a country that is well known for its tradition of barbequed meats and other meat cuisines, but a growing number of people on the Brasilian island of Florianópolis are mocking this tradition by giving up meat altogether in favor of vegetarian diets.
"I gave up meats mainly for ethical reasons," journalism major Murilo Mellio says.
According to Mellio, the small island and college town of Florianopolis is a very progressive and liberal city, especially compared to the rest of Brasil.
Many students and residents alike are opting for vegetarian diets rather than carnivorous ones for reasons similar to the ethical ones Mellio mentioned.
The problem with this progressive movement is that due to Brasil´s strong meat-eating culture, it is difficult for vegetarians to find nutritious, meat-free meals, even in liberal Florianopolis .
UFSC gastronomy student Pedro Enrique says, "Meat is such a big part of our meals, I usually don´t cook without it."
This appears to be the overall mentality of most restaurant owners in Florianopolis as well. A typical buffet in Florianopolis consists of salads, fruits, French fries, rice and beans, which sounds like it should be a sufficient and nutritious vegetarian meal. The downside however, is that most of the food items have hidden meat products in them.
For example, black beans usually contain pork products and by-products and many rice dishes are cooked in various animal based broths.
This can prove to be most distressing for a vegetarian trying to eat out in Brasil.
Mellio says that he usually avoids this dilemma by cooking most of his meals at home.
But for those who are either too busy or unable to cook their own meals all of the time, there aren´t very many options for Brasilian vegetarians in regard to eating out or on the go.
One exception to this is Hong Ka Vegetariano Restaurant just south of the UFSC campus.
According to UFSC journalism student Felipe Monteiro, the Vegetariano Café is very popular amongst locals trying to find a decent, meat-free meal.
The restaurant is buffet style, similar to many other restaurants in Florianopolis , but all dishes are completely meat free.
The café provides a wide array of Asian foods, such as noodles, fried rice, dumplings, soy orange chicken, tofu and many other fulfilling and nutritious dishes.
The owners of the café were not available for comment due to language barriers.
Aside from the vegetarian café, being a vegetarian in a largely meat-eating society can be a difficult endeavor. For those who are vegans, persons who do not eat any type of animal products including dairy and eggs, eating out can prove to be next to impossible.
Monteiro expresses hope that if more Florianopolis residents opt for vegetarian diets and the demand for vegetarian friendly restaurants increases, then maybe restaurant owners will respond to that demand.
Until then, residents must either cook all of their meals, go back to being carnivores, or just plain starve.
BY Nicole Signoretti
Florianopolis, Brasil (June 26, 2007)- Brasil is a country that is well known for its tradition of barbequed meats and other meat cuisines, but a growing number of people on the Brasilian island of Florianópolis are mocking this tradition by giving up meat altogether in favor of vegetarian diets.
"I gave up meats mainly for ethical reasons," journalism major Murilo Mellio says.
According to Mellio, the small island and college town of Florianopolis is a very progressive and liberal city, especially compared to the rest of Brasil.
Many students and residents alike are opting for vegetarian diets rather than carnivorous ones for reasons similar to the ethical ones Mellio mentioned.
The problem with this progressive movement is that due to Brasil´s strong meat-eating culture, it is difficult for vegetarians to find nutritious, meat-free meals, even in liberal Florianopolis .
UFSC gastronomy student Pedro Enrique says, "Meat is such a big part of our meals, I usually don´t cook without it."
This appears to be the overall mentality of most restaurant owners in Florianopolis as well. A typical buffet in Florianopolis consists of salads, fruits, French fries, rice and beans, which sounds like it should be a sufficient and nutritious vegetarian meal. The downside however, is that most of the food items have hidden meat products in them.
For example, black beans usually contain pork products and by-products and many rice dishes are cooked in various animal based broths.
This can prove to be most distressing for a vegetarian trying to eat out in Brasil.
Mellio says that he usually avoids this dilemma by cooking most of his meals at home.
But for those who are either too busy or unable to cook their own meals all of the time, there aren´t very many options for Brasilian vegetarians in regard to eating out or on the go.
One exception to this is Hong Ka Vegetariano Restaurant just south of the UFSC campus.
According to UFSC journalism student Felipe Monteiro, the Vegetariano Café is very popular amongst locals trying to find a decent, meat-free meal.
The restaurant is buffet style, similar to many other restaurants in Florianopolis , but all dishes are completely meat free.
The café provides a wide array of Asian foods, such as noodles, fried rice, dumplings, soy orange chicken, tofu and many other fulfilling and nutritious dishes.
The owners of the café were not available for comment due to language barriers.
Aside from the vegetarian café, being a vegetarian in a largely meat-eating society can be a difficult endeavor. For those who are vegans, persons who do not eat any type of animal products including dairy and eggs, eating out can prove to be next to impossible.
Monteiro expresses hope that if more Florianopolis residents opt for vegetarian diets and the demand for vegetarian friendly restaurants increases, then maybe restaurant owners will respond to that demand.
Until then, residents must either cook all of their meals, go back to being carnivores, or just plain starve.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Why is everything closed on Sundays????
After our exciting week-end of sand boarding, dancing, boating and hick parties, I was absolutely beat and needed to sleep something fierce. I slept in on Sunday (as much as I could, I was up by 9:30 so that I didn´t miss breakfast). I then returned to my room and slept some more. A little while later, I was hungry again and went with Angie to search for food.
I think Brasil is the complete opposite as the states in terms of how they percieve days of the week. In America, we live for the week-end, in Brasil, they live during the week and recuperate on the week-end. Practically everything is closed down on the week-ends, making eating very difficult.
I was really feeling the lack of kitchen yesterday, because mine and Angie´s search for food was becoming desperate. All the restaurants on our street (with the exception of the bakery, but I wasn´t going to survive off of cake) was closed. Our only option was to head to the mall and the food court (I must have been desperate to willingly go to the mall!)
So we randomly hopped on a bus and ended up at the centro, nowhere near where we needed to go. We hopped on another bus and it started to take us back down the exact same route that the previous bus took us down! So we got off at a radom stop and just walked to the mall. It was freezing! It was sprinkling a little it and bitingly cold. When we finally made it to the mall, it was like a refuge! We ate at the Texano BBQ place and I spent $20 on a plate of food that would´ve cost me $6 somewhere else. I was pretty irritated by that. So we ate and then went to the BIG store (like Brasilian Wal-Mart) to try to find things to eat throughout the week, like Cup of Noodles or something. The only Cup of Noodles we could find were creamy and pizza flavor (blech!) so we ended up getting crackers and cookies. Food of champions!
If there´s one thing that I don´t like about Brasil, it´s the lack of food on the week-ends. I just can´t comprehend how everything is closed on Sundays (and in most cases, Saturdays too). I guess people stay home with their families and cook, which is so odd to me because so many people in the states go out to eat on the week-ends. I guess it´s a concept that I´ll never wrap my head around.
I wouldn´t mind staying home and cooking, but my lack of kitchen makes that next to impossible. Also, since I´m forced to either eat out or eat nothing at all, I´m running out of money really fast. I know I shouldn´t be complaining about the food here, but man how I want a burrito! And a stove that I can cook on! If there´s one thing I´m horribly homesick for, it´s food! I´ve been going to bed without dinner for about 2 weeks now and quite frankly, it sucks!
As sad as I am that this is our last week in Floripa, I´m so glad that I won´t have to try to search for food again on Sunday!
I think Brasil is the complete opposite as the states in terms of how they percieve days of the week. In America, we live for the week-end, in Brasil, they live during the week and recuperate on the week-end. Practically everything is closed down on the week-ends, making eating very difficult.
I was really feeling the lack of kitchen yesterday, because mine and Angie´s search for food was becoming desperate. All the restaurants on our street (with the exception of the bakery, but I wasn´t going to survive off of cake) was closed. Our only option was to head to the mall and the food court (I must have been desperate to willingly go to the mall!)
So we randomly hopped on a bus and ended up at the centro, nowhere near where we needed to go. We hopped on another bus and it started to take us back down the exact same route that the previous bus took us down! So we got off at a radom stop and just walked to the mall. It was freezing! It was sprinkling a little it and bitingly cold. When we finally made it to the mall, it was like a refuge! We ate at the Texano BBQ place and I spent $20 on a plate of food that would´ve cost me $6 somewhere else. I was pretty irritated by that. So we ate and then went to the BIG store (like Brasilian Wal-Mart) to try to find things to eat throughout the week, like Cup of Noodles or something. The only Cup of Noodles we could find were creamy and pizza flavor (blech!) so we ended up getting crackers and cookies. Food of champions!
If there´s one thing that I don´t like about Brasil, it´s the lack of food on the week-ends. I just can´t comprehend how everything is closed on Sundays (and in most cases, Saturdays too). I guess people stay home with their families and cook, which is so odd to me because so many people in the states go out to eat on the week-ends. I guess it´s a concept that I´ll never wrap my head around.
I wouldn´t mind staying home and cooking, but my lack of kitchen makes that next to impossible. Also, since I´m forced to either eat out or eat nothing at all, I´m running out of money really fast. I know I shouldn´t be complaining about the food here, but man how I want a burrito! And a stove that I can cook on! If there´s one thing I´m horribly homesick for, it´s food! I´ve been going to bed without dinner for about 2 weeks now and quite frankly, it sucks!
As sad as I am that this is our last week in Floripa, I´m so glad that I won´t have to try to search for food again on Sunday!
Student differences
So after our long voyage on the boat Saturday, at night, Jena, Pedro, Matt and I headed up to the school for a party at the journalism department. It´s so different than back home, because entire departments all hang out with eachother. If you asked me to name 10 people who were journalism majors at CSULB, I wouldn´t be able to do it!
The party was a theme party: Hicks! It was hilarious! These people went all out for this party. There were guys dressed up with overalls, they had straw hats, pitchforks, blacked out teeth, unibrows... the girls had pigtails, painted their cheeks with big freckles and a few of them had some really cool square dancing dresses that makes me wonder where they got them from. There were teachers there too, which I thought was really interesting, because there was food and beer at this party. I thought it was really neat that everybody in the department, students and teachers all meet up on campus to party together. They played many different types of music, a lot of older American songs (ie- Spice Girls) and a lot of samba too.
It was just so cool and so much different than back home. Many of the students spoke English, and when they found out that we were from California, they flocked over to us to practice their language skills. In talking to them, I discovered that Brasilians are so much more open minded than Americans are (at least, as far as I´ve seen). A lot of them have lived in the states at some point, either working or studying for extended periods of time, something that I´ve always wanted to do in another country. It´s just so cool to me how so many people are bilingual here. It makes me feel dumb that I only know one and a half languages, but totally inspires me to become fluent in Spanish ASAP!
A lot of the people that I talked to asked me if we had parties on campus back in California. I had to try to explain to them that California and Brasil are like two completely different planets in terms of the mentality of the people. People in Cali are so much more closed minded and almost self-centered. I thought it was so cool that the students all get together to hang out in such an open environment. They all danced with eachother and ate hot dogs and just had a good time. I had to try to explain that in Cali, you have your group of friends and you go out with them and stay with them and never really meet new people, because the mentality is just not open like it is here in Brasil. Personally, I like the mentality here much better. I love it how everybody is so open minded and so willing to go out of their way to learn English and even more willing to practice it with native speakers.
In trying to reflect on this, I can´t really comprehend why Californians are so much more introverted (for lack of a better word). I guess it´s just the way we grow up in the states, striving for independence and staying safe within your little clique. When I get back home, I´m going to try to be more open in terms of meeting new people and practicing my Spanish with anybody who speaks it, because coming from my experience here, I´m very grateful that so many people are so willing to speak my language. I refuse to let myself become a stuck up American who´s too busy in her own world to care about how the rest of the world lives. If there´s one thing I bring home from Brasil, I want it to be that.
The party was a theme party: Hicks! It was hilarious! These people went all out for this party. There were guys dressed up with overalls, they had straw hats, pitchforks, blacked out teeth, unibrows... the girls had pigtails, painted their cheeks with big freckles and a few of them had some really cool square dancing dresses that makes me wonder where they got them from. There were teachers there too, which I thought was really interesting, because there was food and beer at this party. I thought it was really neat that everybody in the department, students and teachers all meet up on campus to party together. They played many different types of music, a lot of older American songs (ie- Spice Girls) and a lot of samba too.
It was just so cool and so much different than back home. Many of the students spoke English, and when they found out that we were from California, they flocked over to us to practice their language skills. In talking to them, I discovered that Brasilians are so much more open minded than Americans are (at least, as far as I´ve seen). A lot of them have lived in the states at some point, either working or studying for extended periods of time, something that I´ve always wanted to do in another country. It´s just so cool to me how so many people are bilingual here. It makes me feel dumb that I only know one and a half languages, but totally inspires me to become fluent in Spanish ASAP!
A lot of the people that I talked to asked me if we had parties on campus back in California. I had to try to explain to them that California and Brasil are like two completely different planets in terms of the mentality of the people. People in Cali are so much more closed minded and almost self-centered. I thought it was so cool that the students all get together to hang out in such an open environment. They all danced with eachother and ate hot dogs and just had a good time. I had to try to explain that in Cali, you have your group of friends and you go out with them and stay with them and never really meet new people, because the mentality is just not open like it is here in Brasil. Personally, I like the mentality here much better. I love it how everybody is so open minded and so willing to go out of their way to learn English and even more willing to practice it with native speakers.
In trying to reflect on this, I can´t really comprehend why Californians are so much more introverted (for lack of a better word). I guess it´s just the way we grow up in the states, striving for independence and staying safe within your little clique. When I get back home, I´m going to try to be more open in terms of meeting new people and practicing my Spanish with anybody who speaks it, because coming from my experience here, I´m very grateful that so many people are so willing to speak my language. I refuse to let myself become a stuck up American who´s too busy in her own world to care about how the rest of the world lives. If there´s one thing I bring home from Brasil, I want it to be that.
Backtracking again to Saturday
So Saturday our teacher reserved a spot for all of us on a boat cruise through the bay. It was to be an all day cruise that visited little islands and fortreses in the bay.
Since I didn´t get to bed until around 6ish and we had to be there on the docks at 10, needless to say, many of us didn´t get very much sleep. We taxied it to the docks underneath the Hercilio Luz Bridge and paid our $30 (the cost for the whole day on board) and got on the boat. Saturday the weather was beautiful. And it was cool because aside from us Americans, there were a lot of locals on this boat tour too, so it was cool to sort of hang out with them for the day.
We cruised through the harbor in our sail boat with no sails and enjoyed the weather. The boat moved sooo slow! I felt like we weren´t getting anywhere, but the water was so relaxing and it was so pretty to see the island of Floripa on the right hand side and the mainland on the left hand side. I didn´t realize how green Brasil is. It´s so beautiful.
The crew played a lot of cool samba music for our enternainment and I was tempted to start dancing on the deck, but thought better of it and just stuck to tapping my foot.
We made it to our first little island and visited a Portuguese fort from the 17th century (at least, I think that´s when it was from. The tour was in Portuguese, so I had to really strain to understand what was being said). The fort was pretty cool. The island was tiny however and I don´t really understand why the Portuguese would put a little fort in the middle of a bay. I guess I´ll have to look it up on Google later on.
So back to the boat. We cruise some more, and pass by some more little islands. Then the captain stops the boat completely and we all watched in awe as one very brave Brasilian man took a dive in the water! It was funny, because the whole boat was tipping to one side because everybody on board was all one one side of the boat to watch him. It was like we were all one big family, despite our lanuage barriers.
So after said brave man returned to the boat after his swim, we stopped at one of them for some lunch. There was one restaurant on this island and a couple of houses too. So I´m sure some rich folk are living it up on their private island. How nice! The restaurant was horribly over priced, but what could we do? I think it was all part of a tourist trap. Let´s get these people on a boat all day and make them really hungry, then take them to a restaurant where it´s the only place with food and force them to pay all this money because we can! Ok- so I exaggerate a little bit. It wasn´t too bad, and our waiter was a cute older man that communicated with us mainly through sign language, but we understood him! Unfortunately, my lunch consisted of french fries, water and some white rice and lettuce. Not a very nutritious meal.
So back on the boat, we realized that the island was home to seagulls, some other various birds, and vultures. I´ve never seen a vulture in person before and they really creeped me out. So then we stopped by another island with another fort, only this one was much bigger than the first. There was a big yellow house on top of it and I didn´t explore very much, because I thought we were going to run out of time and I didn´t want to get left behind. So I stayed near the dock and watched the little tiny bay waves lap against the sand. It was really relaxing, even though I kept having to swat off mosquitoes that were trying to eat me alive!
The rest of the voyage was just the trip back, which seemed like it was taking forever because the boat was so slow. I chilled on the deck with the rest of my group and just watched the scenery as we floated by. I should have tried to have conversations with my fellow crew mates, but I was so tired and too delerious to have a decent conversation. So instead I just sat back and watched the Brasilians interact with eachother. It was neat, because there were a lot of families on this boat tour, probably taking a day out, so I got to see how people spent their family life. It´s really not much different than in the states, just a litle bit more lively I think. And they all liked to sort of dance to the samba music that they were playing. Most people were crashed out however. It was an exhausting little trip.
I´m a little bit disapointed that I was too tired to try to talk to anybody, but glad that I got the opportunity to people watch. I feel that people are more real if you watch them without them knowing (Ok, that sounded creepy, but it´s not meant to be).
Anyways, it was a fun trip and I´m glad that I got to spend the day on the bay with very warm Brasilian folks.
Pictures for this day were shot on film, so I probably won´t be posting any of them, as I have not developed them yet nor do I have a scanner with me. Sorry.
Since I didn´t get to bed until around 6ish and we had to be there on the docks at 10, needless to say, many of us didn´t get very much sleep. We taxied it to the docks underneath the Hercilio Luz Bridge and paid our $30 (the cost for the whole day on board) and got on the boat. Saturday the weather was beautiful. And it was cool because aside from us Americans, there were a lot of locals on this boat tour too, so it was cool to sort of hang out with them for the day.
We cruised through the harbor in our sail boat with no sails and enjoyed the weather. The boat moved sooo slow! I felt like we weren´t getting anywhere, but the water was so relaxing and it was so pretty to see the island of Floripa on the right hand side and the mainland on the left hand side. I didn´t realize how green Brasil is. It´s so beautiful.
The crew played a lot of cool samba music for our enternainment and I was tempted to start dancing on the deck, but thought better of it and just stuck to tapping my foot.
We made it to our first little island and visited a Portuguese fort from the 17th century (at least, I think that´s when it was from. The tour was in Portuguese, so I had to really strain to understand what was being said). The fort was pretty cool. The island was tiny however and I don´t really understand why the Portuguese would put a little fort in the middle of a bay. I guess I´ll have to look it up on Google later on.
So back to the boat. We cruise some more, and pass by some more little islands. Then the captain stops the boat completely and we all watched in awe as one very brave Brasilian man took a dive in the water! It was funny, because the whole boat was tipping to one side because everybody on board was all one one side of the boat to watch him. It was like we were all one big family, despite our lanuage barriers.
So after said brave man returned to the boat after his swim, we stopped at one of them for some lunch. There was one restaurant on this island and a couple of houses too. So I´m sure some rich folk are living it up on their private island. How nice! The restaurant was horribly over priced, but what could we do? I think it was all part of a tourist trap. Let´s get these people on a boat all day and make them really hungry, then take them to a restaurant where it´s the only place with food and force them to pay all this money because we can! Ok- so I exaggerate a little bit. It wasn´t too bad, and our waiter was a cute older man that communicated with us mainly through sign language, but we understood him! Unfortunately, my lunch consisted of french fries, water and some white rice and lettuce. Not a very nutritious meal.
So back on the boat, we realized that the island was home to seagulls, some other various birds, and vultures. I´ve never seen a vulture in person before and they really creeped me out. So then we stopped by another island with another fort, only this one was much bigger than the first. There was a big yellow house on top of it and I didn´t explore very much, because I thought we were going to run out of time and I didn´t want to get left behind. So I stayed near the dock and watched the little tiny bay waves lap against the sand. It was really relaxing, even though I kept having to swat off mosquitoes that were trying to eat me alive!
The rest of the voyage was just the trip back, which seemed like it was taking forever because the boat was so slow. I chilled on the deck with the rest of my group and just watched the scenery as we floated by. I should have tried to have conversations with my fellow crew mates, but I was so tired and too delerious to have a decent conversation. So instead I just sat back and watched the Brasilians interact with eachother. It was neat, because there were a lot of families on this boat tour, probably taking a day out, so I got to see how people spent their family life. It´s really not much different than in the states, just a litle bit more lively I think. And they all liked to sort of dance to the samba music that they were playing. Most people were crashed out however. It was an exhausting little trip.
I´m a little bit disapointed that I was too tired to try to talk to anybody, but glad that I got the opportunity to people watch. I feel that people are more real if you watch them without them knowing (Ok, that sounded creepy, but it´s not meant to be).
Anyways, it was a fun trip and I´m glad that I got to spend the day on the bay with very warm Brasilian folks.
Pictures for this day were shot on film, so I probably won´t be posting any of them, as I have not developed them yet nor do I have a scanner with me. Sorry.
Backtracking to Friday
Ok, so Friday we took our midterm in class. It went fairly well and I did decent on it, so that´s good. After the midterm, we all decided to enjoy our last week-end in Floripa, so we walked to the bus stop and attempted to get to the dunes near the Lagoa and the beach to go sand boarding. After about an hour of waiting at the bus stop and our bus never showing up, we just randomly hopped on a bus that did come by, which ended up taking us in the complete opposite direction of Lagoa. So we had to get off at another random stop and then hop on another bus (this time, it was the correct one, yay!) So we made it to the trinidade (bus terminal) at Lagoa and hopped on another bus to take us even further to the dunes. We finally made it!
Once we arrived, we purchased our snow/sand boards ($10 per hour- very cheap!) and hit the dunes. Literally... I ate it pretty bad a few times, but not before I got in a couple of really good rides. The dunes were beautiful. I felt like I was in the Saharra, but I was on an island in Brasil. Once you climbed to the top of the dunes, you had an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean and all kinds of vegetation that grows in the sand. I´ve never seen anything like it, but it was beautiful.
So after our hour was up, we tried to de-sand ourselves and proceeded back to the bus stop to head home. We waited for a while, it was starting to get dark and then finally, the bus showed up. Once we got on the bus, it was horribly crowded with people coming back from the beach and what not. There were plenty of people with surfboards on board and there was sand everywhere. It was very reminiscent to home and it made me miss the beach and the summer time. Sand boarding was a blast and I really enjoy taking the bus. The bus drivers here are insane! I´ve come across a couple of crazy bus drivers on the LB Transit back home, but nothing like they are here. Lots of times I close my eyes and try not to watch what´s going on out the window. I guess drivers have to be agressive here,and honestly, who would be stupid enough to play chicken with a bus?
So after getting home and showering, we all went up to the Lagoa to take our friend Murilo out for his birthday. That was a lot of fun. It´s cool to compare the differences between here and home and here, as far as going out is concerned, is so much more fun! Brasilians go out really late. We didn´t even get out until like 11:30 or midnight and didn´t get back to the hotel until around 5:30. I´m going to be really sad when I get back home and everything closes at 2:00. I wish that the mentality in the states was different. Think of how much money clubs and bars could make if they were open later than 2. Honestly. Brasilians have the right idea!
Sand boarding pictures to be up soon soon!
Once we arrived, we purchased our snow/sand boards ($10 per hour- very cheap!) and hit the dunes. Literally... I ate it pretty bad a few times, but not before I got in a couple of really good rides. The dunes were beautiful. I felt like I was in the Saharra, but I was on an island in Brasil. Once you climbed to the top of the dunes, you had an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean and all kinds of vegetation that grows in the sand. I´ve never seen anything like it, but it was beautiful.
So after our hour was up, we tried to de-sand ourselves and proceeded back to the bus stop to head home. We waited for a while, it was starting to get dark and then finally, the bus showed up. Once we got on the bus, it was horribly crowded with people coming back from the beach and what not. There were plenty of people with surfboards on board and there was sand everywhere. It was very reminiscent to home and it made me miss the beach and the summer time. Sand boarding was a blast and I really enjoy taking the bus. The bus drivers here are insane! I´ve come across a couple of crazy bus drivers on the LB Transit back home, but nothing like they are here. Lots of times I close my eyes and try not to watch what´s going on out the window. I guess drivers have to be agressive here,and honestly, who would be stupid enough to play chicken with a bus?
So after getting home and showering, we all went up to the Lagoa to take our friend Murilo out for his birthday. That was a lot of fun. It´s cool to compare the differences between here and home and here, as far as going out is concerned, is so much more fun! Brasilians go out really late. We didn´t even get out until like 11:30 or midnight and didn´t get back to the hotel until around 5:30. I´m going to be really sad when I get back home and everything closes at 2:00. I wish that the mentality in the states was different. Think of how much money clubs and bars could make if they were open later than 2. Honestly. Brasilians have the right idea!
Sand boarding pictures to be up soon soon!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Brief overview...
Ok- I´m on the computer in the lobby of the hotel, and I think they want me to get off, so I have to keep this brief until I can go to the Internet cafe a manha... so here´s a brief overview of my week-end.
Took the midterm on Friday, went sand boarding on the sand dunes, went dancing ´til very, very late, went on an all day boat trip of the bay and some little islands and forts, went to a party at the journalism department on campus, ate french frie for lunch, ate french fries for dinner, frantically searched for food today, took two wrong buses to get to the mall (the only place open on Sundays apparently...) paid $20 reais for a plate of food at the mall that would´ve cost me $5.40 reais down the street from the hotel, walked all the way back from the mall to the hotel (which is quicker than taking the bus, and even two buses), came back and slept.
More in depth tomorrow...
Took the midterm on Friday, went sand boarding on the sand dunes, went dancing ´til very, very late, went on an all day boat trip of the bay and some little islands and forts, went to a party at the journalism department on campus, ate french frie for lunch, ate french fries for dinner, frantically searched for food today, took two wrong buses to get to the mall (the only place open on Sundays apparently...) paid $20 reais for a plate of food at the mall that would´ve cost me $5.40 reais down the street from the hotel, walked all the way back from the mall to the hotel (which is quicker than taking the bus, and even two buses), came back and slept.
More in depth tomorrow...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Our adventure today
After class and much walking/hiking all around the city with some classmates (and wearing myself out in the process), we visited a newsroom. The newspaper is called Diario Catinarinese (not sure if I spelled that right). It´s the main newspaper in Floripa and it´s located on the mainland. Today was the first day that we ventured off of the island. It was, well, pretty much the same as the island. But the newsroom/building was pretty cool. It was about 5 or 6 stories tall and had a winding ramp that spiraled all the way up to the top. It was quite a workout just visiting. I can only imagine working there and having to walk that ramp everyday!
There were two different newspapers that called this building home- the Diario (as mentioned above) and Hora, a tabloid newspaper with a much smaller staff. Our tour guide Renatta (pronounced Henata) took us spiraling up to every floor to see all aspects of the newspaper. I don´t know why, but I´m fascinated by newsrooms. I think they´re so cool and I would love to work in one someday.
A few semesters ago, I got the opportunity to visit the Press Telegram (in their old building, before they moved) and got to see how their newsroom worked and functioned. And when I visited the newsroom in Brasil, I was surprised to see how similar the two are. They have their editor in chief, their meeting room where they have their 2 o´clock meeting everyday to discuss the news for the next day and what will go in the paper the current day, the reporters, photographers, graphic designers, the people who put together the website, the classified section, and even a handful of on staff lawyers! I was fascinated by it! I wish I spoke Portuguese so I could talk to some of the staff there. The newspaper (not the tabloid) seems to be a lot like the Press Telegram as well. They have their police, politics, sports and entertainment sections and the photographers accompany the reporters for a lot of stories.
The tabloid was somewhat similar to that in America, but less sensational in my opinion. I hope that yellow journalism that we have in the states doesn´t catch on here. Once again, I thought the newsroom and the odd building were fascninating and I´m even more inspired to learn this language. So frustrating!
There were two different newspapers that called this building home- the Diario (as mentioned above) and Hora, a tabloid newspaper with a much smaller staff. Our tour guide Renatta (pronounced Henata) took us spiraling up to every floor to see all aspects of the newspaper. I don´t know why, but I´m fascinated by newsrooms. I think they´re so cool and I would love to work in one someday.
A few semesters ago, I got the opportunity to visit the Press Telegram (in their old building, before they moved) and got to see how their newsroom worked and functioned. And when I visited the newsroom in Brasil, I was surprised to see how similar the two are. They have their editor in chief, their meeting room where they have their 2 o´clock meeting everyday to discuss the news for the next day and what will go in the paper the current day, the reporters, photographers, graphic designers, the people who put together the website, the classified section, and even a handful of on staff lawyers! I was fascinated by it! I wish I spoke Portuguese so I could talk to some of the staff there. The newspaper (not the tabloid) seems to be a lot like the Press Telegram as well. They have their police, politics, sports and entertainment sections and the photographers accompany the reporters for a lot of stories.
The tabloid was somewhat similar to that in America, but less sensational in my opinion. I hope that yellow journalism that we have in the states doesn´t catch on here. Once again, I thought the newsroom and the odd building were fascninating and I´m even more inspired to learn this language. So frustrating!
Yesterday...
After class, we visited RCB (I think that´s what it´s called- my memory sucks). It´s a TV/radio station up on top of a hill in Floripa. It has wonderful views of the whole island. It was pretty interesting. I´ve never really been to a TV or radio station, so it was cool to see one, especially one in Brasil. We visited 2 different TV stations where they broadcast their daily news and other programs and then 3 different radio stations. One of the stations was talk radio and the other two were for music. The music radio stations seemed interesting because the DJ´s don´t get to pick the music that they play- they have a list of songs already lined up for them by a higher up, but they do get to correspond with callers and take requests, so that´s kind of cool. I don´t know much about American radio, mainly because I think new music today is crap and I don´t really listen to the radio because of that, but after visiting this Brasilian station, I have a little bit more sympathy for stations back home such as KROQ. I think that they may operate in a similar fashion. I´m almost positive that American DJ´s (with the exception of Jim Ladd- which is why he´s my hero) have to play what they´re told to play, which may be why KROQ plays so much crap all the time. I´m inspired now to discover if this is really the case in the U.S. I´ve never really been interested in the broadcast side of journalism, but visiting RCB sort of change that. I still don´t really want to work in broadcast, but I definitely want to learn more about it, especially so that I can compare the differences between U.S. and Brasil broadcast.
Some day, I´ll crawl out from under my rock...
Some day, I´ll crawl out from under my rock...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The high light of my day...
was getting my clothes cleaned! Here in Floripa, there are no laundomats, only lavandarias, which are places you go to to drop off your clothes and have somebody clean them for you. I don't really like this too much because I prefer to do my own laundry and also, when I dropped my clothes off yesterday, they said they wouldn't be ready until today. So that basically meant that I had just one pair of jeans to wear both yesterday and today and I had to wear them to bed too. So, yeah, ugh. That was gross. But, come later this afternoon, I went back to the lavandaria to pick them up and they were so fresh and so clean clean! And nice and folded and my socks and underwear were in their own seperate bags! I can't wait to have clean jammies to sleep in! Hooray!
Now that I´ve mastered it... more pictures!
These are all fairly random pictures as I can´t yet figure out how exactly to organize them with captions. But basically, they´re snippets of things that I´ve seen and appreciated on my trip thus far.
Thoughts on the news
So as I was checking my Yahoo! account today, I couldn´t help but notice all of the wonderful headlines that is American news.
Kerri Russel gives birth to first baby!
Oh yeah, and 100 civilians and soldiers died in Iraq today.
Moving on to Paris Hilton being in jail...
It´s nice to be out of touch with the sensational journalism that our country is so famous (or is it infamous?) for.
That is all... more pictures to come!
Kerri Russel gives birth to first baby!
Oh yeah, and 100 civilians and soldiers died in Iraq today.
Moving on to Paris Hilton being in jail...
It´s nice to be out of touch with the sensational journalism that our country is so famous (or is it infamous?) for.
That is all... more pictures to come!
Pictures? Let´s see if it works...
These (above photos) are both at the market place in the old downtown.
This is at Santo Antonio de Lisboa.
This is at one of the beaches we visited yesterday (and for the life of me, I can´t recal the name).
Blog-a-roo (can´t think of a clever title)
First of all, I´m feeling so much better! My cold is practically all gone- I just have a slight lingering cough left, but that´s it. Hooray!
Murilo took me to a vegetarian restaurant yesterday. I didn´t know that those even existed in Brasil. It´s mostly Asian food, but it´s an all you can eat buffet! They don´t weigh your food at this place. It´s wonderful. And they have all kinds of good tofu, vegetables, cakes, fake meats (which are so much better than they sound) and lots more. It provides a nice relief from the rice, beans and french fries that I´ve been living off of for the past week.
Anyways, enough about food. Today Pedro and I hiked up this big hill right outside of school. It was so steep it was practically vertical, but the view up at the top was worth it. I think we ended up in a little neighborhood on the top of the hill. I was afraid we were trespassing, but nobody ever came out to chase us away with broom sticks and shot guns, so I´m assuming we were OK. It was interesting to see that little community though. The road was too steep for cars to go up it, so I´m assuming that the people who live there hike up there every single day. It makes me wonder just how exactly they moved all their furniture and personal belongings up there...
So in class this morning, we talked about cultural imperialism and globalization and if the two are different or the same. The hand out that we read regarding these issues gave arguments for both. I personally think that they are both different. Cultural imperialism to me only exists if a country allows it to. Take France for example. The French absolutely refuse to let their culture be invaded by foreign ones (such as the U.S.) Globalization definitely exists, how can it not with the power of the internet at our fingertips? I don´t necessarily think that globalization is a bad thing. It´s something that has been happening for as long as humans have been nomads, which is basically for our whole existence. Cultures are bound to mix and intermingle no matter what anybody thinks about it. I think that the U.S. may try to be culturally imperial to other countries, but when you think about it, who would want their culture to be like ours? The cool thing about globalization is that it provides an outlet for people to get to know other cultures and perspectives and that leads to respecting othe people´s beliefs. Cultural imperialism to me is the same thing as missionaries going to other countries to shove their beliefs down people´s throats. So if you think about it in this respect, I don´t think that the two are the same.
Here in Brasil, you see some American things (such as McDonald´s and some TV shows and movies) but for the most part, they have kept their culture in tact and it is much different from that of the states. Even though they have some American things, that´s just part of globalization and it is not cultural imperialism. I don´t think that Brasilians will ever let other cultures dominate their own, because their culture is just too unique as it is and they seem to enjoy their way of life a lot. I know that I certainly enjoy their way of life.
Murilo took me to a vegetarian restaurant yesterday. I didn´t know that those even existed in Brasil. It´s mostly Asian food, but it´s an all you can eat buffet! They don´t weigh your food at this place. It´s wonderful. And they have all kinds of good tofu, vegetables, cakes, fake meats (which are so much better than they sound) and lots more. It provides a nice relief from the rice, beans and french fries that I´ve been living off of for the past week.
Anyways, enough about food. Today Pedro and I hiked up this big hill right outside of school. It was so steep it was practically vertical, but the view up at the top was worth it. I think we ended up in a little neighborhood on the top of the hill. I was afraid we were trespassing, but nobody ever came out to chase us away with broom sticks and shot guns, so I´m assuming we were OK. It was interesting to see that little community though. The road was too steep for cars to go up it, so I´m assuming that the people who live there hike up there every single day. It makes me wonder just how exactly they moved all their furniture and personal belongings up there...
So in class this morning, we talked about cultural imperialism and globalization and if the two are different or the same. The hand out that we read regarding these issues gave arguments for both. I personally think that they are both different. Cultural imperialism to me only exists if a country allows it to. Take France for example. The French absolutely refuse to let their culture be invaded by foreign ones (such as the U.S.) Globalization definitely exists, how can it not with the power of the internet at our fingertips? I don´t necessarily think that globalization is a bad thing. It´s something that has been happening for as long as humans have been nomads, which is basically for our whole existence. Cultures are bound to mix and intermingle no matter what anybody thinks about it. I think that the U.S. may try to be culturally imperial to other countries, but when you think about it, who would want their culture to be like ours? The cool thing about globalization is that it provides an outlet for people to get to know other cultures and perspectives and that leads to respecting othe people´s beliefs. Cultural imperialism to me is the same thing as missionaries going to other countries to shove their beliefs down people´s throats. So if you think about it in this respect, I don´t think that the two are the same.
Here in Brasil, you see some American things (such as McDonald´s and some TV shows and movies) but for the most part, they have kept their culture in tact and it is much different from that of the states. Even though they have some American things, that´s just part of globalization and it is not cultural imperialism. I don´t think that Brasilians will ever let other cultures dominate their own, because their culture is just too unique as it is and they seem to enjoy their way of life a lot. I know that I certainly enjoy their way of life.
Continued...
So the whole point of me describing our new friends and their house is because it helps to describe how immersed we are here in Brasil. We hung out with our new friends on Sunday as well, and this time I brought my English/Portuguese dictionary so that I can try to talk to Pedro. It helped a lot even though we were still using a lot of sign language. But I like to look at the language barriers as not just frustrating, but challenging because you have to try to be creative to get your point across.
Murilo was interesting to talk to though because we were talking a lot about government and the differences between the U.S. and Brasil. He said that you´re forced to vote in Brasil (it´s not optional like in the states) and if you don´t then you have certain priveleges taken away from you (such as your passport). He said that he and many other people refuse to vote for this reason and that they frequently have rallies in which the protesters encourage people NOT to vote. I told him that it was exactly the opposite in the states and that you frequently see people on the streets or in front of stores trying to get people TO vote. He asked me why I vote if I don´t like either the Democratic or Republican party and I told him that elections are much more than voting for just the President. I explained that we have ballot measures that are city wide, county wide, state wide and occasionally country wide and that voting is important because those measures affect the people directly. I also explained that we have elections twice a year (although the main one is in November) and that it´s an important part of a democracy and that voters can really make a difference (hence the voters changing the Republican led Congress to a Democratic one last November). So it was really interesting to talk about the differences, because I don´t know much about Brasilian government.
It´s also interesting because Murilo is a fellow vegetarian and was explaining his frustration at living in a largely meat eating country, which I can totally empathize with. So far I´ve seen many differences and similarities here as compared to the states. One of the main differences is the lifestyle that most Brasilians (at least here in Floripa) are so much more active and healthy than back home. It´s refreshing to see women with curves that look healthy, but aren´t overweight and the same with men (sans the curves). The mentality is completely different. I hope that the skinny craze that has consumed America doesn´t occur down here too. I think the people here are more active because it´s just part of their culture. They seem to have their own ideas of what´s beautiful and their idea seems to be more natural and healthy rather than being stick thin and wearing tons of makeup.
Another difference is that it seems a lot more laid back and open to just hanging out instead of being constantly entertained (be it by TV, video games, etc). I mean, Floripa is a bustling little city, but since we´re staying right down the street from the Universidade, it seems more like a little college town than anything else. Students appear to be more serious about their studies as well.
As for similarities, the traffic is scary and it´s even scarier trying to cross the street. Although we have coined the term California roll, they have coined the term ´don´t stop at the stop sign at all´. People also seem a little bit snoody as you pass them walking down the street. It is for this reason that I said in an earlier blog that I have yet to see the Brasilian hospitality. But as Murilo (who is from further up north) said, the people are a little bit colder here. But when you can find some that speak English, they´re more than willing to practice their language skills with you. It´s weird.
I feel as if the people here (who have become accustomed to seeing us walk around everywhere) either love us or hate us. Sometimes I feel as if we´re just a bunch of ´stupid Americanos´and other times I feel as if we´re giving our country a better name because we´re always super polite and try really hard to speak the language. I think I feel this way because maybe some Brasilians have a certain image of America and Americans that they don´t want to change just because they met a handful of nice young American kids.
Either way, I have learned that you need to be quiet (more so than at home, because apparently, we´re very loud) and blend in. You know it´s working when people come up to you and hand you flyers and start asking you questions in Portuguese (as happened to me yesterday). It´s been an experience so far, but a good and very insightful one.
Murilo was interesting to talk to though because we were talking a lot about government and the differences between the U.S. and Brasil. He said that you´re forced to vote in Brasil (it´s not optional like in the states) and if you don´t then you have certain priveleges taken away from you (such as your passport). He said that he and many other people refuse to vote for this reason and that they frequently have rallies in which the protesters encourage people NOT to vote. I told him that it was exactly the opposite in the states and that you frequently see people on the streets or in front of stores trying to get people TO vote. He asked me why I vote if I don´t like either the Democratic or Republican party and I told him that elections are much more than voting for just the President. I explained that we have ballot measures that are city wide, county wide, state wide and occasionally country wide and that voting is important because those measures affect the people directly. I also explained that we have elections twice a year (although the main one is in November) and that it´s an important part of a democracy and that voters can really make a difference (hence the voters changing the Republican led Congress to a Democratic one last November). So it was really interesting to talk about the differences, because I don´t know much about Brasilian government.
It´s also interesting because Murilo is a fellow vegetarian and was explaining his frustration at living in a largely meat eating country, which I can totally empathize with. So far I´ve seen many differences and similarities here as compared to the states. One of the main differences is the lifestyle that most Brasilians (at least here in Floripa) are so much more active and healthy than back home. It´s refreshing to see women with curves that look healthy, but aren´t overweight and the same with men (sans the curves). The mentality is completely different. I hope that the skinny craze that has consumed America doesn´t occur down here too. I think the people here are more active because it´s just part of their culture. They seem to have their own ideas of what´s beautiful and their idea seems to be more natural and healthy rather than being stick thin and wearing tons of makeup.
Another difference is that it seems a lot more laid back and open to just hanging out instead of being constantly entertained (be it by TV, video games, etc). I mean, Floripa is a bustling little city, but since we´re staying right down the street from the Universidade, it seems more like a little college town than anything else. Students appear to be more serious about their studies as well.
As for similarities, the traffic is scary and it´s even scarier trying to cross the street. Although we have coined the term California roll, they have coined the term ´don´t stop at the stop sign at all´. People also seem a little bit snoody as you pass them walking down the street. It is for this reason that I said in an earlier blog that I have yet to see the Brasilian hospitality. But as Murilo (who is from further up north) said, the people are a little bit colder here. But when you can find some that speak English, they´re more than willing to practice their language skills with you. It´s weird.
I feel as if the people here (who have become accustomed to seeing us walk around everywhere) either love us or hate us. Sometimes I feel as if we´re just a bunch of ´stupid Americanos´and other times I feel as if we´re giving our country a better name because we´re always super polite and try really hard to speak the language. I think I feel this way because maybe some Brasilians have a certain image of America and Americans that they don´t want to change just because they met a handful of nice young American kids.
Either way, I have learned that you need to be quiet (more so than at home, because apparently, we´re very loud) and blend in. You know it´s working when people come up to you and hand you flyers and start asking you questions in Portuguese (as happened to me yesterday). It´s been an experience so far, but a good and very insightful one.
Monday, June 18, 2007
New friends
So this past week-end was a lot of fun. Hector, a journalism student at the Universidade that has been showing us around campus wanted to hang out with us on Saturday. We had no difinitive plans, but he invited us to come hang out with his friends who live at the Lagoa. We hopped on a bus and went.
His friends are also students at the universidade but they live in this super cool community of cabins. They´re like these small, two bedroom cabins that have tons of character. There´s about 8 or 10 of them altogether, but they´re set in the green hills and it´s so beautiful.
We hung out with our new friends Murilo, Pedro 3 and Pedro 4 (we have met many Pedros on this voyage, so we had to start numbering them off). They are all really cool and very hospitable. They took us out for pizza at a really good restaurant where they absolutely refused to let us pay for their meals and then we all just hung around at their cabin and listened to music.
Murilo is a journalism student as well who speaks pretty good English. He is a fellow vegetarian too.
Pedro 3 speaks hardly any English, so we got along communicating with him by very broken Portuguese and sign language, but he´s sweet. Pedro 3 is a culinary student and invited us over the next day for a ´Brasileira bbq`.
Pedro 4 lived in the U.S. for several years, so he speaks perfect English, but likes to pretend that he doesn´t just to piss us off. It´s quite funny actually.
I need to go read my text book for now, so I´ll write more later, but this was the setting for my fun week-end.
His friends are also students at the universidade but they live in this super cool community of cabins. They´re like these small, two bedroom cabins that have tons of character. There´s about 8 or 10 of them altogether, but they´re set in the green hills and it´s so beautiful.
We hung out with our new friends Murilo, Pedro 3 and Pedro 4 (we have met many Pedros on this voyage, so we had to start numbering them off). They are all really cool and very hospitable. They took us out for pizza at a really good restaurant where they absolutely refused to let us pay for their meals and then we all just hung around at their cabin and listened to music.
Murilo is a journalism student as well who speaks pretty good English. He is a fellow vegetarian too.
Pedro 3 speaks hardly any English, so we got along communicating with him by very broken Portuguese and sign language, but he´s sweet. Pedro 3 is a culinary student and invited us over the next day for a ´Brasileira bbq`.
Pedro 4 lived in the U.S. for several years, so he speaks perfect English, but likes to pretend that he doesn´t just to piss us off. It´s quite funny actually.
I need to go read my text book for now, so I´ll write more later, but this was the setting for my fun week-end.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Class related
So in regard to the actual class- we´ve been talking about media ownership lately. First it was about U.S. media ownership and today we talked about non-U.S. media ownership. I was really surprised (and a little scared) at how such a small amount of companies own just about everything. It really does scare me how much control and pówer they have over the masses. And it´s hard not to support them too, because even if you boycott- say, Disney or Disneyland, if you watch any TV programming on ABC, you´re still supporting Disney, since they own ABC. It´s crazy. We taked about Globo- Brazil´s biggest media company. I´ve watched some Globo while I´ve been here. So far, it seems similar to U.S. media. But I guess newscasters just plain look alike no matter what language they´re speaking.
As I´ve been sick and a little out of it (as you can probably tell by my odd journal entries today...) I have not had a chance to read for class tomorrow and I can honestly say that I don´t even know what the assignment is for class tomorrow. When I go back to the room to order my soup, I plan on reading the handout for class. Gotta keep up with my studies.
But so far, it´s been really interesting to be immersed in the culture. I´ve never been away from home for this long and I´m starting to get really homesick (and literally sick) but at the same time, I don´t really want to leave. I love trying to become a part of this culture because it´s such a vibrant culture. It´s interesting to understand how it feels when you begin to blend in and become accustomed to the local way of life here. I´m starting to get used to seeing the same people around campus and although my Portuguese is basically non-existent, I did invest in a Portuguese/English dictionary today, so hopefully that will help in my quest to have a non-English conversation with somebody. I really wish that I spoke the language. Being here has really inspired me to continue to pursue my education in Spanish. I hope to someday be fluent (I´m about halfway there, but still have much to learn). I think that once I learn Spanish fluently, it will be easier for me to understand other languages such as Portuguese, Italian and French. I pick up on languages pretty quickly, so I don´t think that this goal is too far fetched...
but for now, I think I´m going to retire to the hotel, some chicken noodle soup, green tea and Pedro´s company (my fellow sicky poo).
As I´ve been sick and a little out of it (as you can probably tell by my odd journal entries today...) I have not had a chance to read for class tomorrow and I can honestly say that I don´t even know what the assignment is for class tomorrow. When I go back to the room to order my soup, I plan on reading the handout for class. Gotta keep up with my studies.
But so far, it´s been really interesting to be immersed in the culture. I´ve never been away from home for this long and I´m starting to get really homesick (and literally sick) but at the same time, I don´t really want to leave. I love trying to become a part of this culture because it´s such a vibrant culture. It´s interesting to understand how it feels when you begin to blend in and become accustomed to the local way of life here. I´m starting to get used to seeing the same people around campus and although my Portuguese is basically non-existent, I did invest in a Portuguese/English dictionary today, so hopefully that will help in my quest to have a non-English conversation with somebody. I really wish that I spoke the language. Being here has really inspired me to continue to pursue my education in Spanish. I hope to someday be fluent (I´m about halfway there, but still have much to learn). I think that once I learn Spanish fluently, it will be easier for me to understand other languages such as Portuguese, Italian and French. I pick up on languages pretty quickly, so I don´t think that this goal is too far fetched...
but for now, I think I´m going to retire to the hotel, some chicken noodle soup, green tea and Pedro´s company (my fellow sicky poo).
Quirky things
Being sick sucks. Especially when you´re far away from home and far away from vegetable soup and all the comfy amemnities of home. Like your own bed, a bathtub, etc. I really, really need some soup right now. I think I mentioned earlier that I´m going to just order chicken soup when I get back. Yeah, I´m not really looking forward to it, but I need some. Argh! So here´s a list of some quirky things I´ve noticed here so far:
1. So, limes here are orange. It´s weird. But I ordered some suco de limaõ (lime juice) today and it was delicious!
2. Yesterday I talked to a cool hippie dude that didn´t speak much English and I bought a cool gift from him. He owed me $10 in change, but only had 9, so for the extra dollar, he gave me a ring. People give weird thing for change around here.
3. It is so beautiful here. I love the weather, the blue sky (even thought it is overcast sometimes) the colorful houses, the buffets that weigh your plates, the abundance of motorcyles and yes, even the rude drivers. The rude drivers make me feel like I´m at home!
4. I saw a horse drawn carriage trotting down the street today. That was bizarre.
5. I watched a show on TV the other day that was in 3 different languages! It must be cool to speak a Latin/romance language, because it must be easy to learn them because they´re so similar. Stupid English.
6. There are stray dogs everywhere.
7. Fabric softener can easily be mistaken for laundry detergent. So beware!
8. There is no peanut butter here. What the heck!?
9. You have to empty out your pockets/purses of any cell phones, watches, etc when visiting the bank, otherwise, the rotating glass doors won´t let you in.
10. I´m never drinking orange juice from concentrate again. Can somebody get me a juicer for my birthday, please??
1. So, limes here are orange. It´s weird. But I ordered some suco de limaõ (lime juice) today and it was delicious!
2. Yesterday I talked to a cool hippie dude that didn´t speak much English and I bought a cool gift from him. He owed me $10 in change, but only had 9, so for the extra dollar, he gave me a ring. People give weird thing for change around here.
3. It is so beautiful here. I love the weather, the blue sky (even thought it is overcast sometimes) the colorful houses, the buffets that weigh your plates, the abundance of motorcyles and yes, even the rude drivers. The rude drivers make me feel like I´m at home!
4. I saw a horse drawn carriage trotting down the street today. That was bizarre.
5. I watched a show on TV the other day that was in 3 different languages! It must be cool to speak a Latin/romance language, because it must be easy to learn them because they´re so similar. Stupid English.
6. There are stray dogs everywhere.
7. Fabric softener can easily be mistaken for laundry detergent. So beware!
8. There is no peanut butter here. What the heck!?
9. You have to empty out your pockets/purses of any cell phones, watches, etc when visiting the bank, otherwise, the rotating glass doors won´t let you in.
10. I´m never drinking orange juice from concentrate again. Can somebody get me a juicer for my birthday, please??
The last couple of days
So far, so good. I take back what I said about the lack of Brazilian hospitality. Yesterday (which was my birthday, and it was great!) we met quite a few very friendly Brazilian folks who made me feel very welcome in their country. And a lot of them who spoke English. I had a broken English/Spanish/Portuguese with this hippie dude at school who I bought some souveniers from. He was pretty nice. Because of the language barriers, we weren´t able to talk about anything important, but I got out of him that he and his wife make all of their handicrafts and it´s the only source of income they have. So that was interesting.
We visited a bay yesterday, San Antonio de Lisboa and I loved it. I took lots of pictures there. It reminded me a lot of Europe, cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, but definitely with a Latin twist. It was very tropical and the weather was beautiful. Everybody keeps making fun of me because everytime I walk outside I comment on how nice it is. Seriously, like every single time! I can´t help it though- it really is nice here!
My classmates took me out for my birthday and it was a lot of fun. We had middle eastern food and then went dancing. And I love me some Brazilian music! It´s so wonderful and I´m going to miss it when I get back home. I´ll have to make an attempt to find some Brazilian musicians in L.A. Needless to say, we were all walking zombies in class today.
For our assignment in class, we were supposed to talk to more Brazilians to ask them about media ownership, basically to see how much they know about it. Thus far, I´ll be honest, I have not asked anybody yet. Mainly because, I caught a stupid cold. I feel terrible. I had to order room service to bring up a thermos of hot water for me so I can have some tea. Ideally I would love to have some soup, but vegetable soup is non-existent here. I´m almost tempted to just bite the bullet and order some chicken noodle soup. But if I do, please don´t tease me about it. I just want to
feel better. If I could make my own soup, I would. Humph!
So tomorrow, I´m determined to walk up the hill and trail that go along the back of the hotel. I´ve been saying this for days, but something keeps coming up that prevents me from doing it. Today it was being sick, and having to do my laundry.
I went to the little store and bought what I thought was landry detergent, but when I got back to the hotel to wash my clothes in the sink, I discovered that I had bought a huge jug of fabric softener... so my hands are super soft right now, but I´m not sure my clothes are as clean as they could be!
I was going to type more, but I forgot.
We visited a bay yesterday, San Antonio de Lisboa and I loved it. I took lots of pictures there. It reminded me a lot of Europe, cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, but definitely with a Latin twist. It was very tropical and the weather was beautiful. Everybody keeps making fun of me because everytime I walk outside I comment on how nice it is. Seriously, like every single time! I can´t help it though- it really is nice here!
My classmates took me out for my birthday and it was a lot of fun. We had middle eastern food and then went dancing. And I love me some Brazilian music! It´s so wonderful and I´m going to miss it when I get back home. I´ll have to make an attempt to find some Brazilian musicians in L.A. Needless to say, we were all walking zombies in class today.
For our assignment in class, we were supposed to talk to more Brazilians to ask them about media ownership, basically to see how much they know about it. Thus far, I´ll be honest, I have not asked anybody yet. Mainly because, I caught a stupid cold. I feel terrible. I had to order room service to bring up a thermos of hot water for me so I can have some tea. Ideally I would love to have some soup, but vegetable soup is non-existent here. I´m almost tempted to just bite the bullet and order some chicken noodle soup. But if I do, please don´t tease me about it. I just want to
feel better. If I could make my own soup, I would. Humph!
So tomorrow, I´m determined to walk up the hill and trail that go along the back of the hotel. I´ve been saying this for days, but something keeps coming up that prevents me from doing it. Today it was being sick, and having to do my laundry.
I went to the little store and bought what I thought was landry detergent, but when I got back to the hotel to wash my clothes in the sink, I discovered that I had bought a huge jug of fabric softener... so my hands are super soft right now, but I´m not sure my clothes are as clean as they could be!
I was going to type more, but I forgot.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Talking to the Brazilians
So we had to go out and talk to some Brazilians for class today. First of all, we had to see if they spoke English and if they did, ask them how they felt about the U.S. based on the media they see. It was really interesting. I was actually with a couple of my classmates when they were getting their interviews done, so I got to see a lot of different perspectives on this.
One girl, Kristini?? (she said it was Christina in English- so I´m not sure how to spell it) thinks that the U.S. is great and that all of her friends think the same thing. Another guy that I talked to, Guihermi (once again, sorry for the spelling) said something similar. That he thinks the U.S. is also very cool based on the media. I was talking with my classmate Fletcher (the mystery man!) about his interview and he said that his guy knows that the media only shows one side of the story and that he shouldn´t take what he sees on TV as literal. I thought all of these opinions are very interesting. When we set out to do this assignment, I was under the impression that they were all going to hate us, but I found out just the opposite. I was also really surprised that the guy Fletcher talked to didn´t take the media seriously, because a lot of people do, which is so not cool because America is not what Hollywood makes it out to be (big houses, plastic surgery, Paris Hilton...) But all in all, I was just surprised that they liked America.
I didn´t get a chance to talk to anybody older though. As Jena said in class today, there´s a generation gap and it seems that older people feel as if their culture is being invaded by America´s ´junk food´culture, while the younger generation embraces it. I got a good taste of that today. If I can find an older person that speaks English, I would love to ask them how they feel about America, because I´m pretty sure that they would think our culture sucks. But it was really interesting to see exactly what we talked about in class today presented to us in real life by talking to people. It was also neat to have to go up to people and ask them if they spoke English, because it was sort of like an ice-breaker with the locals and made me feel a little bit better about that whole hospitality thing I mentioned in the previous blog.
Today was also a little bit better in the sense that we´re starting to blend in and look less like tourists. We´re getting the hang of crossing that round about and are getting better at asking questions in Portuguese. I think over the course of the three weeks here, people will start to like us and hopefully forgive us for being so loud and obnoxious on our first day here. It seems like it´s going that way already (that and we´re beginning to get into the more laid back lifestyle of this place).
Can´t wait to go our and take pictures tomorrow! I´ve only taken 3 pictures since I´ve been here (mainly because I like to take my time, blend in and capture the moment) but it´s been too much of a whirlwind to do this). If I feel better tomorrow, I´m getting up early to shoot the city in the early morning light. It´s so beautiful here and I love observing how laid back everybody is. It´s also cool to be in a college town and to see how much different, yet how much the same it is as back home.
More to come tomorrow...
One girl, Kristini?? (she said it was Christina in English- so I´m not sure how to spell it) thinks that the U.S. is great and that all of her friends think the same thing. Another guy that I talked to, Guihermi (once again, sorry for the spelling) said something similar. That he thinks the U.S. is also very cool based on the media. I was talking with my classmate Fletcher (the mystery man!) about his interview and he said that his guy knows that the media only shows one side of the story and that he shouldn´t take what he sees on TV as literal. I thought all of these opinions are very interesting. When we set out to do this assignment, I was under the impression that they were all going to hate us, but I found out just the opposite. I was also really surprised that the guy Fletcher talked to didn´t take the media seriously, because a lot of people do, which is so not cool because America is not what Hollywood makes it out to be (big houses, plastic surgery, Paris Hilton...) But all in all, I was just surprised that they liked America.
I didn´t get a chance to talk to anybody older though. As Jena said in class today, there´s a generation gap and it seems that older people feel as if their culture is being invaded by America´s ´junk food´culture, while the younger generation embraces it. I got a good taste of that today. If I can find an older person that speaks English, I would love to ask them how they feel about America, because I´m pretty sure that they would think our culture sucks. But it was really interesting to see exactly what we talked about in class today presented to us in real life by talking to people. It was also neat to have to go up to people and ask them if they spoke English, because it was sort of like an ice-breaker with the locals and made me feel a little bit better about that whole hospitality thing I mentioned in the previous blog.
Today was also a little bit better in the sense that we´re starting to blend in and look less like tourists. We´re getting the hang of crossing that round about and are getting better at asking questions in Portuguese. I think over the course of the three weeks here, people will start to like us and hopefully forgive us for being so loud and obnoxious on our first day here. It seems like it´s going that way already (that and we´re beginning to get into the more laid back lifestyle of this place).
Can´t wait to go our and take pictures tomorrow! I´ve only taken 3 pictures since I´ve been here (mainly because I like to take my time, blend in and capture the moment) but it´s been too much of a whirlwind to do this). If I feel better tomorrow, I´m getting up early to shoot the city in the early morning light. It´s so beautiful here and I love observing how laid back everybody is. It´s also cool to be in a college town and to see how much different, yet how much the same it is as back home.
More to come tomorrow...
First impressions of Floripa
Today is Tuesday, June 12- and this is a re-cap of yesterday.
So, I wasn´t really sure what to expect from this little city before I got here. I guess for one I was expecting to see the warm Brazilian hospitality I´ve heard so much about, but so far, I haven´t really seen any of that. It kind of seems like our group of 12 Americans is annoying everybody. I mean, we are a little bit on the loud side, but we´re all just excited and have become pretty good friends since our horrible voyage here. And it´s been like one big slumber party. We´ve been told on more than one occasion that we need to be quiet and have had some complaints. Maybe we´ll be more quiet tonight (I hope so at least- I don´t want to keep making everybody mad at us). But as for the actual city, I absolutely adore it! You´ll have to do a google search for maps of Florianopolis to understand where exactly I am, but basically. we´re on the island part (not on the mainland- which is also part of Floripa), right off of the main highway. The island is very hilly and very tropical. There are so many colorful houses that decorate the green hillsides that the main highway runs through (a 2 lane road). Our hotel Quinta da Bica Dágua is really nice.
You wouldn´t think it would look like much since it´s right off the busy road, but once you get back inside through a cobblestone driveway, it´s like a private little rain forest (pictures to come later- I´ve been too busy to photograph anything but 3 shots). The cobblestone driveway runs all the way past the little breakfast place (where we eat lots of different fruits, breads, cereals and fresh squeezed juice every morning), past the little restaurant and then up to the ´apartments´(the hotel part). And mind you, this is all surrounded by trees, jasmine plants that smell so good at night and the little forest beyond (there´s a trail back there that I haven´t visited yet). I guess there are many different types of birds and some monkeys that live in that little forest. I hope to see some soon! I´ve also been told that late at night, bats come out and drink the water of the lagoa (the pool that is too green to swim in). Between the 12 of us, there are 4 rooms, so we´re all bunked up 3 to a room, so it´s been a lot of fun having roommates.
But remember, the whole point of this trip is to be taking a class in global news media, so even though we´re all really excited to be in such a neat little part of Brazil, we´re students first. The Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is just a couple of blocks away from the hotel. Class starts at 9:00 in the morning. So after we eat breakfast, we make our way down the street (which is really busy and dirty with the smell of diesel fumes since the sidewalk is so close to the 2 lane road) to school. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here. To get to school, we have to cross this little roundabout (sort of like a mini-traffic circle) but there aren´t any stop signs or cross walks, even though it´s the only way for anybody to get to the campus from the other side of the road. So it´s like a mad dash trying to not get hit by cars on the way to school. The campus is cute. It reminds me of the LBCC PCC campus a lot actually. Except that it´s set in a very green and tropical setting (by the way, the weather here has been really nice. A little overcast, but perfect temperature, even a little bit warm considering that it´s winter here). They even have private vendors that set up shop outside of the buildings just like back home. Our classroom is in the journalism department building (their department is pretty big here- they have photo labs, a TV studio and I think a radio station too).
The way our class is set up, we each have to read a chapter (well, we all have to read the chapters) but one of us is assigned a particular chapter that we have to present to the rest of the class. I did mine (the first presentation) today and it was pretty cool. We all get in a circle and whoever is presenting goes over the main points that were discussed in the chapter and then we all discuss it and since it´s global news media, a lot of it is based on what we´ve seen on previous travels and our travels here so far. I like the laid back style of this class setting. It leads to good discussion. Today I talked about Chapter 1- Global Communication (clever, huh?) It was pretty basic and just brushed up on some general ideas that will be discussed in the chapter, so today was easy, but I think the topics and chapters get a little bit more specific as we go. We also have to keep up this blog as part of our assignments (hence, I´m writing this blog!)
It´s kind of cool to be immersed in the school though. We looked very touristy yesterday (our first day), but today was a lot better as we´re starting to get into the swing of things and are blending in easier. It also helps that we´re starting to slowly but surely begin to pick up on some Portuguese. Ordering food is becoming easier! We visit the food court here on campus for lunch, so we really are immersed in the student culture of Floripa. It´s weird, because it´s not much different from home. Except they speak a different language. And many of them speak English too, all you have to do is ask Eu fala ingles?
It´s funny though, because we´ve been going to this buffet on campus that is really good (especially for Celine and I- the class vegans). Brazilians eat pretty good. There´s always an abundance of fruit, lots of salad, black beans, white rice, french fries (I know- but I love potatoes!) and all sorts of meats and pastas. So don´t worry back home, I´m getting lots of protein and more fruit than I normally eat (and fruits that I´ve never had before). You pay based on how much your plate of food weighs, which is a funny system I think. Oh, and they do NOT like to give change out here. If your meal is R$11 (11 reals, about 5 dollars) and you hand them a R$20 bill, they always ask you if you have exact change (if I had exact change, I wouldn´t have handed you a $20!) So anyways...
We went on a little tour of the city yesterday. We visited the old downtown market (it was adorable and had so much character!) and I can´t wait to go back there and take pictures. We then went down the street to this little restaurant for dinner. We all had a great time trying to order our food as nobody had brought a dictionary with them and we all had no idea what we were ordering. Our table was a mess. Drinks everywhere, bottles everywhere, plates, platters, rice dishes and clay pots of beans everywhere. But we had a lot of fun and it was later that I realized that I needed to read the first chapter as I was to present today. We tried to form a popcorn reading group, and we ended up getting the gist of the chapter, but we ended up messing around more than anything. Oh well, we tried. I woke up early this morning and read the chapter by myself. But our popcorn reading helped a bit.
So I´m feeling like I´m coming down with something today... a cold or something. Luckily after class today, we didn´t have anything to do until 6 when we were to meet back up at school to type our blogs at the computer lab, so I went back to the room and slept for 5 hours! That´s a lot of sleeping. I think it´s early to bed for me too- I don´t want to be sick tomorrow. How often can I say that I turned 23 in Brazil???
Ok- I gotta go for now, because I have to write a different blog (which you will see before this one I think...) so I hope everybody back home is doing well and I will try not to get sick!
So, I wasn´t really sure what to expect from this little city before I got here. I guess for one I was expecting to see the warm Brazilian hospitality I´ve heard so much about, but so far, I haven´t really seen any of that. It kind of seems like our group of 12 Americans is annoying everybody. I mean, we are a little bit on the loud side, but we´re all just excited and have become pretty good friends since our horrible voyage here. And it´s been like one big slumber party. We´ve been told on more than one occasion that we need to be quiet and have had some complaints. Maybe we´ll be more quiet tonight (I hope so at least- I don´t want to keep making everybody mad at us). But as for the actual city, I absolutely adore it! You´ll have to do a google search for maps of Florianopolis to understand where exactly I am, but basically. we´re on the island part (not on the mainland- which is also part of Floripa), right off of the main highway. The island is very hilly and very tropical. There are so many colorful houses that decorate the green hillsides that the main highway runs through (a 2 lane road). Our hotel Quinta da Bica Dágua is really nice.
You wouldn´t think it would look like much since it´s right off the busy road, but once you get back inside through a cobblestone driveway, it´s like a private little rain forest (pictures to come later- I´ve been too busy to photograph anything but 3 shots). The cobblestone driveway runs all the way past the little breakfast place (where we eat lots of different fruits, breads, cereals and fresh squeezed juice every morning), past the little restaurant and then up to the ´apartments´(the hotel part). And mind you, this is all surrounded by trees, jasmine plants that smell so good at night and the little forest beyond (there´s a trail back there that I haven´t visited yet). I guess there are many different types of birds and some monkeys that live in that little forest. I hope to see some soon! I´ve also been told that late at night, bats come out and drink the water of the lagoa (the pool that is too green to swim in). Between the 12 of us, there are 4 rooms, so we´re all bunked up 3 to a room, so it´s been a lot of fun having roommates.
But remember, the whole point of this trip is to be taking a class in global news media, so even though we´re all really excited to be in such a neat little part of Brazil, we´re students first. The Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) is just a couple of blocks away from the hotel. Class starts at 9:00 in the morning. So after we eat breakfast, we make our way down the street (which is really busy and dirty with the smell of diesel fumes since the sidewalk is so close to the 2 lane road) to school. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way here. To get to school, we have to cross this little roundabout (sort of like a mini-traffic circle) but there aren´t any stop signs or cross walks, even though it´s the only way for anybody to get to the campus from the other side of the road. So it´s like a mad dash trying to not get hit by cars on the way to school. The campus is cute. It reminds me of the LBCC PCC campus a lot actually. Except that it´s set in a very green and tropical setting (by the way, the weather here has been really nice. A little overcast, but perfect temperature, even a little bit warm considering that it´s winter here). They even have private vendors that set up shop outside of the buildings just like back home. Our classroom is in the journalism department building (their department is pretty big here- they have photo labs, a TV studio and I think a radio station too).
The way our class is set up, we each have to read a chapter (well, we all have to read the chapters) but one of us is assigned a particular chapter that we have to present to the rest of the class. I did mine (the first presentation) today and it was pretty cool. We all get in a circle and whoever is presenting goes over the main points that were discussed in the chapter and then we all discuss it and since it´s global news media, a lot of it is based on what we´ve seen on previous travels and our travels here so far. I like the laid back style of this class setting. It leads to good discussion. Today I talked about Chapter 1- Global Communication (clever, huh?) It was pretty basic and just brushed up on some general ideas that will be discussed in the chapter, so today was easy, but I think the topics and chapters get a little bit more specific as we go. We also have to keep up this blog as part of our assignments (hence, I´m writing this blog!)
It´s kind of cool to be immersed in the school though. We looked very touristy yesterday (our first day), but today was a lot better as we´re starting to get into the swing of things and are blending in easier. It also helps that we´re starting to slowly but surely begin to pick up on some Portuguese. Ordering food is becoming easier! We visit the food court here on campus for lunch, so we really are immersed in the student culture of Floripa. It´s weird, because it´s not much different from home. Except they speak a different language. And many of them speak English too, all you have to do is ask Eu fala ingles?
It´s funny though, because we´ve been going to this buffet on campus that is really good (especially for Celine and I- the class vegans). Brazilians eat pretty good. There´s always an abundance of fruit, lots of salad, black beans, white rice, french fries (I know- but I love potatoes!) and all sorts of meats and pastas. So don´t worry back home, I´m getting lots of protein and more fruit than I normally eat (and fruits that I´ve never had before). You pay based on how much your plate of food weighs, which is a funny system I think. Oh, and they do NOT like to give change out here. If your meal is R$11 (11 reals, about 5 dollars) and you hand them a R$20 bill, they always ask you if you have exact change (if I had exact change, I wouldn´t have handed you a $20!) So anyways...
We went on a little tour of the city yesterday. We visited the old downtown market (it was adorable and had so much character!) and I can´t wait to go back there and take pictures. We then went down the street to this little restaurant for dinner. We all had a great time trying to order our food as nobody had brought a dictionary with them and we all had no idea what we were ordering. Our table was a mess. Drinks everywhere, bottles everywhere, plates, platters, rice dishes and clay pots of beans everywhere. But we had a lot of fun and it was later that I realized that I needed to read the first chapter as I was to present today. We tried to form a popcorn reading group, and we ended up getting the gist of the chapter, but we ended up messing around more than anything. Oh well, we tried. I woke up early this morning and read the chapter by myself. But our popcorn reading helped a bit.
So I´m feeling like I´m coming down with something today... a cold or something. Luckily after class today, we didn´t have anything to do until 6 when we were to meet back up at school to type our blogs at the computer lab, so I went back to the room and slept for 5 hours! That´s a lot of sleeping. I think it´s early to bed for me too- I don´t want to be sick tomorrow. How often can I say that I turned 23 in Brazil???
Ok- I gotta go for now, because I have to write a different blog (which you will see before this one I think...) so I hope everybody back home is doing well and I will try not to get sick!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Planes, airports, buses, taxis and a whole lotta waiting
So, I finally made it to Florianopolis, Brazil, my final destination for my trip and class down here. I´ve only been here for a day, but thus far, I´m really enjoying this cute little city. But let me tell you, getting here was an adventure in itself, and it makes for a very, very long story.
It all began at LAX on Saturday morning... the journey from Long Beach to the airport was in itself, very uneventful compared to the rest of the journey. So after saying goodbyes at the airport, I accidentally waited in the domestic flights line and I made it all the way to the counter for the attendant to inform me that I needed to be in the international flights line, which was waay longer than the first one. I tried to bypass the line altogether (since I had a paper ticket and didn´t need an e-ticket) so I attempted to check my baggage at the roadside check. After waiting in that line for a few minutes, I discovered that they don´t take paper tickets and that I should´ve just gotten in the international line in the first place. So much for that... so off to the international line I go. And I waited and waited and waited. Finally I make it to the counter, check my luggage, pass through security and proceeded to the gate. I then met up with a few other classmates who were all on the same flight as me, so that was pretty cool. We then proceeded to board the plane and fly to Atlanta. This flight was relatively uneventful and quick too. We arrived at Atlanta early even. After landing my classmates and I (there were 7 of us altogether) waited around a little bit to see if the other three people who were supposed to be on the same flight were going to come off of the plane (because there were supposed to be 10 of us). So we waited and waited. They never showed up, so we concluded that maybe they changed their flights or they missed the flight altogether. The latter was confirmed when we received a text message from one of our fellow classmates who was still stuck in LA with his girlfriend and the third classmate. Apparently the airline had screwed them out of the flight and they missed it altogether. So they said that they would meed up with us in Floripa on the same day as us, but at around 7 at night (the rest of us were to arrive in Floripa at around 9 in the morning). So after we made sure that the 7 of us were altogether and ready to go, we took the Atlanta airport subway to the correct terminal (yes, the airport is so gigantic, that they actually have a subway that takes you from terminal to terminal). So we get to Gate E27 and hung out for a little bit. Since our flight from LAX had gotten in early, we had a little bit of extra time to relax and grab some food before catching our connecting flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo, Brazil. (And just for the record, the plan was to fly from LAX to Atlanta to Sao Paulo to Floripa and be there by 9...just in case you get confused). So we had about an hour and a half before our flight left Atlanta at 6:30 pm for our overnight flight so Sao Paulo. So 6:30 comes and goes... pretty soon, the announcer lady (her name was Anne- she was super cool) gets on the loudspeaker and proceeds to tell us that the flight has been slightly delayed (by 30 minutes). No big deal, we all think. So, pretty soon, 30 minutes comes and goes... Anne gets on the speaker again and tells us that the gate has been moved to E2 (luckily in the same terminal, since the airport is just too big to get from one terminal to another quickly, even with a subway). So me, my classmates, and all the other people on the full flight grab our things and proceed to gate E2. We get there, and we wait, and wait and wait. By this point, it´s about 8:30 at night (2 hours after our flight was to depart). Anne gets on the loudspeaker again. ´Ladies and gentleman, I am very sorry. I don´t remember how many times I´ve said that, I forgot. I´m sure you don´t want to hear my voice anymore. But I really don´t know where the plane is.´ Mind you, the plane wasn´t even at the gate, but as soon as Anne made this announcement, the plane was arriving. She stopped talking to us to confirm that it was our plane, and she got back on the speaker and happily proclaimed ´ladies and gentelmen! Look out the window, and you will see our plane!´ Everybody seemed very relieved about this good piece of news. So now all we had to do was to wait for them to clean it. That won´t take too long, right? Oh how wrong we were. Pretty soon, it´s 10:00, almost 4 hours after our flight was supposed leave. Anne gets on the speaker again. ´Ladies and gentlemen, they are cleaning the plane and it should be ready soon. I am so, so sorry about this delay. Please come up to the desk and get some peanuts and water if you want.´ Poor Anne, we all felt so bad for her, because she had to be the bearer of all this bad news. So by this point, we began to worry that we weren´t going to make it to Sao Paulo in time to make our connecting flight to Floripa. At first we were hopeful (we were to have a 2 hour stopover in Sao Paulo before the flight took off), but at this point, it was just hopeless. So we proceeded to the desk to ask Anne if she can get us on another flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa (maybe even the same one that our fellow three classmates who were still stuck in LAX were on- it was the same day and the same airline, so we thought we´d give it a try). At first she said no, because she works with Delta, and the airline we were to use in Brazil was TAM, and since the two do not work together, she could not book. So we all accepted this and went back to waiting (and thanks to my fellow classmate Christina, who brought her portable DVD play, we watched Legally Blonde 2 in its entirety- meaning that we waited about another hour and a half...) Then another classmate, Jena, decided that we should try to bug Anne again to see if she could get us on that flight, because we didn´t know what we were going to do, besides be stranded at the airport in Sao Paulo. This time around, Anne hooked us up (never believe airline people when they say they can´t do something, because you know they can, they´re just lazy, or in Anne´s case, horribly stressed out that she had to coax some 200 angry people over their 4 hour flight delay). So she got us on a 4:50 flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa (it was pending, but it was better than nothing. Way to go Anne!) So, FINALLY, after hours of waiting for the plane to show up, switching gates, waiting for the plane to be cleaned and some deliberation with a missing trash bin (apparently FAA regulations state that there has to be a certain number of trash bins on each aircraft, and for some reason, this Delta plane was missing one...) we boarded the plane. By this point, it was midnight. Our flight had been delayed over 5 hours! Almost even 6! And for no apparent reason either, as we never got a straight answer as to why it took so long for our plane to show up in the first place or why it took forever to clean it...
So, we´re on the plane, being taxied away from the gate, ready to get on the runway and in the air. We don´t quite make it to the runway before the plane stops. And once again, we wait. After about 10 minutes, the captain comes on and says ´Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the chaos that was your delay earlier, but I´m afraid that the airport has closed the runway. We have just put in a call for them to open it up again.´Luckily this didn´t take that long, and shortly after we were in the air at last (even though it was pretty ridiculous that they closed the runway). So we were served our dinner (a midnight snack mind you- we were supposed to be eating dinner at about 7) and we flew south.
So the next morning, we make it to Sao Paulo. It´s almost a good thing that we missed the flight we were to originally be on from Sao Paulo to Floripa, because we never would have made it, even with the 2 hour layover, because between customs, standing at TAM airline check-in (which took forever!) not to mention having to get our baggage at baggage claim because apparently, it didn´t go all the way through like they said it would and then having to wait in another ridiculous line just so we could hand in a piece of paper that claims we didn´t bring any seeds, animals or drugs into the country, we took about 2 hours to do just this. So it´s about 11 in the morning (Sunday) at this point, and it was confirmed that Anne had indeed gotten all 7 of us on the 4:50 flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa. So, needless to say, we had time to kill. We all exchanged currency and got some Brazilian real (pronounced Hey-ice) and got some food. We found a little buffet type place with lots of fruit, salad, rice, beans and meat (for the carnivores) and it´s funny, because you pay based on how much your plate of food weighs. So after eating, we ventured outside the airport to get some fresh air finally. So I can now say that I have officially visited Sao Paulo (and it will get a thumb tack on my map when I get home). It´s so nice! There was this thick forest outside the airport and the weather was beautiful and there was a great breeze. We just kicked it outside by the freeway for about an hour and a half. It hadn´t really set in that we were actually in Brazil, because we still had a long time to go before we reached our final destination and got to explore. So I kept thinking that I was in CA, but had to remind myself that I was far far away.
So we go back in the airport and proceed to gate A3 to wait for our plane, when the 7 of us were all not very pleasantly surprised to learn that the gate had been moved... again... to A8 (maybe it was 7- I don´t remember). But when we got there, who all should we discover, but the missing 3 people who got left behind at LAX! How crazy that we all got reunited in the end, at a random airport none-the-less. So we caught them up on our voyage, they caught us up on theirs, then we gossiped about the ´mystery people´who are basically, 2 people who were apparently coming to Brazil with us (because their names were on the email list our professor gave us), but nobody had ever seen, met or heard from them. So we were all curious to know if they would be in Brazil at all. We then began to call out their names to random people at the airport to see if they happened to be there too. It was pretty silly. So then, the gate got moved again... to A1. Which wasn´t even a gate at all, it was like a bus terminal. (By the way, our 4:50 flight was delayed about an hour with all the gate hopping and what not). So after waiting at gate A1 for a while, a bus came and took us to our plane, way across the airport (don´t ask me why, I don´t know). So we got to board the plane outside with those stairs on wheels (president style!) and we were finally, finally ready to go. It was only about 6 o clock at night, but since it´s winter here, it gets dark really early, and between flying, waiting, flying, waiting some more, hardly sleeping and the sun setting earlier than it does back home, we were so beat and it felt like midnight. Ugh! (Even though it should´ve only been 2 o clock in CA. Ugh again! Really bad jetlag!)
Luckily, this flight was only an hour (and they passed out candy before the flight even began!), and it was pretty much over as soon as it started. And finally, after over 24 hours of traveling and 12 hours later than we were supposed to, we arrive in Floripa. It was dark, so we couldn´t see anything either. Once we got to the airport to claim our baggage, we were pleasantly surprised to see our professor had indeed come to pick us up! (My classmate Treonna had sent him an email back in Atlanta warning him that we might not make the 9 in the morning flight, but at that time, we weren´t sure when we would be arriving, so we weren´t sure if he got that email or not...) but apparently, he did! And it turns out, that one of the mystery people does exist! Only one though. The other person shall remain a mystery person. Poor
Brenda.
So after loading up all of our luggage in the professor´s van and all 10 of our bodies in a big taxi van, we made it to the Hotel Quinta da Bica DÁgua. It was dark, but it seemed lovely. We then split the now 12 of us (my other classmate Celine met us at the hotel) up into threes and got to our rooms. At about 9 o clock... some 36 hours after our journey began. It was such a long journey, that once we touched down in Floripa, it seemed as if our adventure was over- even though it´s only just beginning. But at the same time, it´s kind of cool, since we all had such a horrible experience together, we all bonded very quickly and everybody is super cool and we took it all in stride. So, that was the journey getting here... more to come later on the actual trip itself.
It all began at LAX on Saturday morning... the journey from Long Beach to the airport was in itself, very uneventful compared to the rest of the journey. So after saying goodbyes at the airport, I accidentally waited in the domestic flights line and I made it all the way to the counter for the attendant to inform me that I needed to be in the international flights line, which was waay longer than the first one. I tried to bypass the line altogether (since I had a paper ticket and didn´t need an e-ticket) so I attempted to check my baggage at the roadside check. After waiting in that line for a few minutes, I discovered that they don´t take paper tickets and that I should´ve just gotten in the international line in the first place. So much for that... so off to the international line I go. And I waited and waited and waited. Finally I make it to the counter, check my luggage, pass through security and proceeded to the gate. I then met up with a few other classmates who were all on the same flight as me, so that was pretty cool. We then proceeded to board the plane and fly to Atlanta. This flight was relatively uneventful and quick too. We arrived at Atlanta early even. After landing my classmates and I (there were 7 of us altogether) waited around a little bit to see if the other three people who were supposed to be on the same flight were going to come off of the plane (because there were supposed to be 10 of us). So we waited and waited. They never showed up, so we concluded that maybe they changed their flights or they missed the flight altogether. The latter was confirmed when we received a text message from one of our fellow classmates who was still stuck in LA with his girlfriend and the third classmate. Apparently the airline had screwed them out of the flight and they missed it altogether. So they said that they would meed up with us in Floripa on the same day as us, but at around 7 at night (the rest of us were to arrive in Floripa at around 9 in the morning). So after we made sure that the 7 of us were altogether and ready to go, we took the Atlanta airport subway to the correct terminal (yes, the airport is so gigantic, that they actually have a subway that takes you from terminal to terminal). So we get to Gate E27 and hung out for a little bit. Since our flight from LAX had gotten in early, we had a little bit of extra time to relax and grab some food before catching our connecting flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo, Brazil. (And just for the record, the plan was to fly from LAX to Atlanta to Sao Paulo to Floripa and be there by 9...just in case you get confused). So we had about an hour and a half before our flight left Atlanta at 6:30 pm for our overnight flight so Sao Paulo. So 6:30 comes and goes... pretty soon, the announcer lady (her name was Anne- she was super cool) gets on the loudspeaker and proceeds to tell us that the flight has been slightly delayed (by 30 minutes). No big deal, we all think. So, pretty soon, 30 minutes comes and goes... Anne gets on the speaker again and tells us that the gate has been moved to E2 (luckily in the same terminal, since the airport is just too big to get from one terminal to another quickly, even with a subway). So me, my classmates, and all the other people on the full flight grab our things and proceed to gate E2. We get there, and we wait, and wait and wait. By this point, it´s about 8:30 at night (2 hours after our flight was to depart). Anne gets on the loudspeaker again. ´Ladies and gentleman, I am very sorry. I don´t remember how many times I´ve said that, I forgot. I´m sure you don´t want to hear my voice anymore. But I really don´t know where the plane is.´ Mind you, the plane wasn´t even at the gate, but as soon as Anne made this announcement, the plane was arriving. She stopped talking to us to confirm that it was our plane, and she got back on the speaker and happily proclaimed ´ladies and gentelmen! Look out the window, and you will see our plane!´ Everybody seemed very relieved about this good piece of news. So now all we had to do was to wait for them to clean it. That won´t take too long, right? Oh how wrong we were. Pretty soon, it´s 10:00, almost 4 hours after our flight was supposed leave. Anne gets on the speaker again. ´Ladies and gentlemen, they are cleaning the plane and it should be ready soon. I am so, so sorry about this delay. Please come up to the desk and get some peanuts and water if you want.´ Poor Anne, we all felt so bad for her, because she had to be the bearer of all this bad news. So by this point, we began to worry that we weren´t going to make it to Sao Paulo in time to make our connecting flight to Floripa. At first we were hopeful (we were to have a 2 hour stopover in Sao Paulo before the flight took off), but at this point, it was just hopeless. So we proceeded to the desk to ask Anne if she can get us on another flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa (maybe even the same one that our fellow three classmates who were still stuck in LAX were on- it was the same day and the same airline, so we thought we´d give it a try). At first she said no, because she works with Delta, and the airline we were to use in Brazil was TAM, and since the two do not work together, she could not book. So we all accepted this and went back to waiting (and thanks to my fellow classmate Christina, who brought her portable DVD play, we watched Legally Blonde 2 in its entirety- meaning that we waited about another hour and a half...) Then another classmate, Jena, decided that we should try to bug Anne again to see if she could get us on that flight, because we didn´t know what we were going to do, besides be stranded at the airport in Sao Paulo. This time around, Anne hooked us up (never believe airline people when they say they can´t do something, because you know they can, they´re just lazy, or in Anne´s case, horribly stressed out that she had to coax some 200 angry people over their 4 hour flight delay). So she got us on a 4:50 flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa (it was pending, but it was better than nothing. Way to go Anne!) So, FINALLY, after hours of waiting for the plane to show up, switching gates, waiting for the plane to be cleaned and some deliberation with a missing trash bin (apparently FAA regulations state that there has to be a certain number of trash bins on each aircraft, and for some reason, this Delta plane was missing one...) we boarded the plane. By this point, it was midnight. Our flight had been delayed over 5 hours! Almost even 6! And for no apparent reason either, as we never got a straight answer as to why it took so long for our plane to show up in the first place or why it took forever to clean it...
So, we´re on the plane, being taxied away from the gate, ready to get on the runway and in the air. We don´t quite make it to the runway before the plane stops. And once again, we wait. After about 10 minutes, the captain comes on and says ´Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the chaos that was your delay earlier, but I´m afraid that the airport has closed the runway. We have just put in a call for them to open it up again.´Luckily this didn´t take that long, and shortly after we were in the air at last (even though it was pretty ridiculous that they closed the runway). So we were served our dinner (a midnight snack mind you- we were supposed to be eating dinner at about 7) and we flew south.
So the next morning, we make it to Sao Paulo. It´s almost a good thing that we missed the flight we were to originally be on from Sao Paulo to Floripa, because we never would have made it, even with the 2 hour layover, because between customs, standing at TAM airline check-in (which took forever!) not to mention having to get our baggage at baggage claim because apparently, it didn´t go all the way through like they said it would and then having to wait in another ridiculous line just so we could hand in a piece of paper that claims we didn´t bring any seeds, animals or drugs into the country, we took about 2 hours to do just this. So it´s about 11 in the morning (Sunday) at this point, and it was confirmed that Anne had indeed gotten all 7 of us on the 4:50 flight from Sao Paulo to Floripa. So, needless to say, we had time to kill. We all exchanged currency and got some Brazilian real (pronounced Hey-ice) and got some food. We found a little buffet type place with lots of fruit, salad, rice, beans and meat (for the carnivores) and it´s funny, because you pay based on how much your plate of food weighs. So after eating, we ventured outside the airport to get some fresh air finally. So I can now say that I have officially visited Sao Paulo (and it will get a thumb tack on my map when I get home). It´s so nice! There was this thick forest outside the airport and the weather was beautiful and there was a great breeze. We just kicked it outside by the freeway for about an hour and a half. It hadn´t really set in that we were actually in Brazil, because we still had a long time to go before we reached our final destination and got to explore. So I kept thinking that I was in CA, but had to remind myself that I was far far away.
So we go back in the airport and proceed to gate A3 to wait for our plane, when the 7 of us were all not very pleasantly surprised to learn that the gate had been moved... again... to A8 (maybe it was 7- I don´t remember). But when we got there, who all should we discover, but the missing 3 people who got left behind at LAX! How crazy that we all got reunited in the end, at a random airport none-the-less. So we caught them up on our voyage, they caught us up on theirs, then we gossiped about the ´mystery people´who are basically, 2 people who were apparently coming to Brazil with us (because their names were on the email list our professor gave us), but nobody had ever seen, met or heard from them. So we were all curious to know if they would be in Brazil at all. We then began to call out their names to random people at the airport to see if they happened to be there too. It was pretty silly. So then, the gate got moved again... to A1. Which wasn´t even a gate at all, it was like a bus terminal. (By the way, our 4:50 flight was delayed about an hour with all the gate hopping and what not). So after waiting at gate A1 for a while, a bus came and took us to our plane, way across the airport (don´t ask me why, I don´t know). So we got to board the plane outside with those stairs on wheels (president style!) and we were finally, finally ready to go. It was only about 6 o clock at night, but since it´s winter here, it gets dark really early, and between flying, waiting, flying, waiting some more, hardly sleeping and the sun setting earlier than it does back home, we were so beat and it felt like midnight. Ugh! (Even though it should´ve only been 2 o clock in CA. Ugh again! Really bad jetlag!)
Luckily, this flight was only an hour (and they passed out candy before the flight even began!), and it was pretty much over as soon as it started. And finally, after over 24 hours of traveling and 12 hours later than we were supposed to, we arrive in Floripa. It was dark, so we couldn´t see anything either. Once we got to the airport to claim our baggage, we were pleasantly surprised to see our professor had indeed come to pick us up! (My classmate Treonna had sent him an email back in Atlanta warning him that we might not make the 9 in the morning flight, but at that time, we weren´t sure when we would be arriving, so we weren´t sure if he got that email or not...) but apparently, he did! And it turns out, that one of the mystery people does exist! Only one though. The other person shall remain a mystery person. Poor
Brenda.
So after loading up all of our luggage in the professor´s van and all 10 of our bodies in a big taxi van, we made it to the Hotel Quinta da Bica DÁgua. It was dark, but it seemed lovely. We then split the now 12 of us (my other classmate Celine met us at the hotel) up into threes and got to our rooms. At about 9 o clock... some 36 hours after our journey began. It was such a long journey, that once we touched down in Floripa, it seemed as if our adventure was over- even though it´s only just beginning. But at the same time, it´s kind of cool, since we all had such a horrible experience together, we all bonded very quickly and everybody is super cool and we took it all in stride. So, that was the journey getting here... more to come later on the actual trip itself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)